No, no, not "that" kind of shooting...I mean shooting of photographs - or "snapping" as it's called here.
I've been doing workshops on photographic technique, composition, business and ethics for the Indigenous Photographers Union of Sierra Leone and the final "class" ended with a fieldtrip through town. Can you imagine... 60 photographers gathering at the Congo Cross junction to march and snap down to the Youyie Building - where most of the government ministries are located. It was a photographic extravaganza.
There we were... snapping, talking to people, getting people to pose, stopping traffic, doing portraits of police officers, snapping billboards and graffiti... shooting buildings... and wrapping up our workshop series.
It was an awesome sight... and it was the first of its kind in Sierra Leone. Wow... it almost felt like a "movement" or the blossoming of an industry. Very cool.
Most - probably 90% of the photographers still shoot with colour film (there's no such thing as B&W film here anymore) and most photographers are using film cameras that are at least ten years old. Manual focus, manual wind, no light meters, some with no controls or dials that work... and yet we made it all work. I'll be doing a "post-workshop evaluation" next week where we'll be looking at several samples from each of the photographers... so that should be interesting. Then, the Union wants to enlarge and frame the best photos for exhibition. Wow. What a good idea.
It was awesome and I'll try to upload some images from the fieldtrip.
Gotta love technology... or the lack of it.
Stephen
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Amazing accomplishment, you must be proud of your team, congradulations! Look farward to seeing the results.jm
ReplyDeleteSounds like things are happening there.
ReplyDeleteAwareness is the first step. Change peoples minds and change the world. Unfortunately television and alcohol/drugs keep that from happening, or as the corporate media sees fit ($$).
Here in Canada we have the the U.S. desperate to quell the Canadian economy and inflate their own or at least get a piece of or all the market share. We had wheat embargos, mad cow disease, lumber (tax) now all U.S. owned, PEI potato moratoriums, SARS in T.O. (killed the rising film industry), Avian Bird flu, various public shootings and now Swine Flu, oh ya and the icing on the cake the T.O. garbage strike just in time when people are planning vacations destroying the last haven in the city 'our' parks (good timing guys).
Hoping it comes together on your end for them just don't use US as a model...
C
Sounds like it was a lot of fun! I can't wait to see the photos!
ReplyDelete